Full-scale preparations are underway at Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts as current and former students work voluntarily in a festive atmosphere to welcome the Bengali New Year.
This year’s celebrations carry a distinctive twist, as students are incorporating popular pop culture characters alongside traditional folk imagery in their artwork, reflecting a blend of heritage and contemporary influences.
Visiting the Fine Arts campus on Monday afternoon, students were seen working in groups under the guidance of alumni and faculty members. Five large motifs are currently being constructed: an elephant, a Tepa Putul horse, a pigeon, a rooster and a dotara.
Students from the Sculpture department are primarily building the structural frameworks for these motifs. Outside the faculty building, students are painting murals on the walls depicting elements of rural Bengali culture, continuing a long-standing annual practice.
Inside the faculty, students are also painting on paper and clay plates—known locally as Matir sora—which are sold to visitors, with the proceeds helping fund the New Year celebrations. This year, however, the clay plates reflect a broader cultural narrative.
Alongside traditional folk motifs, visitors can see characters such as Spider-Man, Doraemon, Shinnosuke Nohara (Shin Chan) and Toru Kazama—figures widely familiar to Gen Z through anime and global pop culture.
Asked about the approach behind this blend, Printmaking student Soumik Ghosh told Dhaka Tribune, “There is no specific theme behind it. Everyone just drew whatever came to their mind.”
Sculpture student Sajedul Hossain offered a broader perspective, saying, “None of us are really outside the reach of modernity. So this year too, there’s an attempt to create a fusion between folk culture and pop culture—though traditional folk elements will still dominate, as always.”
Student participation this year has been notably higher than last year, when a significant number of students stayed away from preparations, largely due to controversy over the renaming of the Mongol Shobhajatra procession as Borshoboron Anondo Shobhajatra.
This year, Cultural Affairs Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury announced on Sunday that the procession will be renamed again—this time as “Boishakhi Shobhajatra”.